Trade deficits and surpluses cancel each other out. Attempts by many to maximise surplus can lead to a spiral of tit-for-tat retaliations, as can be seen in the trade conflict between China and US. Keynes' early 1940s plan for a Clearing Union involved an impartial system for the management of currencies, and a world central bank. Keynes's proposal was reformulated by the Brandt Commission in 1980, warning of a repeat of the developments of the 1930s, and soon by post-Keynesians such as Davidson and others. The first aim of our project is to explicate the often implicit assumptions of various ICU-proposals and to use that knowledge reconstructively. The second aim of our project is to analyse under which world economic and political conditions different ICU-proposals may become feasible. Our research project has an ambitious mixed-method design, combining qualitative and quantitative empirical approaches with normative analysis and argumentation. The project is future-oriented.

2021

2025